Police return vehicles seized in Trudie Hall case

HYANNIS — An SUV and a motorcycle seized as part of the investigation into Trudie Hall's disappearance were returned to their owners earlier this month.

KAREN JEFFREY

HYANNIS — An SUV and a motorcycle seized as part of the investigation into Trudie Hall's disappearance were returned to their owners earlier this month.

But the rented Toyota Avalon that Hall, a pregnant 23-year-old Nantucket resident, reportedly drove the day before she vanished on July 27 remains in police hands.

Technically, Hall is still considered a missing person, but police sources have said they believe she is dead.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe confirmed Monday that the vehicles taken from Quoizel Wilson's home in Centerville were returned on Sept. 9, nearly a month after they were taken to the Barnstable police station for examination. The police believe Wilson is the father of Hall's unborn child.

Hall disappeared from the Cape on July 27 after telling her mother Vivienne Walker that she was going to Hyannis for an appointment. According to her mother, Hall was four months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. Jane Haist, a family friend, told the Nantucket Inquirer Mirror last week that Hall was expecting a son.

The police have never named Wilson as a suspect in this case. Nor have they ever said what led them to search his home, which he shares with his wife and their young daughter at 259 Great Marsh Road.

Wilson declined a request for an interview yesterday and referred questions to his attorney, Robert J. Galibois, who said, "At an appropriate time I will issue a statement on behalf of the family. Now is not that time."

Wilson, a former Nantucket resident, was one of several people listed as a "friend" on Hall's Facebook page. He and Hall's family attended the same church on Nantucket, according the congregation's pastor.

Records show that in 2009 Hall married two men within a six-month period in what officials believe was an immigration scam.

On Aug. 5, during a search of Wilson's Centerville home, the police seized a white Nissan Armada registered to his mother, Ruby Lee Miller of Rosedale, Miss., and a Ducati motorcycle registered to Wilson.

Generally during a criminal investigation, the police can seize potential evidence if they have a search warrant or the permission of an item's owner. If the police deem an item has no further investigatory value, it is more often than not returned to the owner even if an investigation is continuing.

It was Galibois who called the district attorney's office to nudge law enforcement to return his client's property.

Law enforcement sources have told the Times that bullet casings and blood were found inside the rented Toyota when it was found off Route 6 on July 30, two days after Hall was reported missing. The police will not say specifically where the car was found.

O'Keefe will not say what, if anything, was found inside the rental car. Sources close to the investigation who verified there was blood in the car have declined to tell the Times whether it matches Hall's blood type.